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The problem is that there are plenty of valuable skills that are difficult to test in a standardized way. Most standardized test questions focus on Bloom levels
by gms7777 3y ago
The problem is that there are plenty of valuable skills that are difficult to test in a standardized way. Most standardized test questions focus on Bloom levels 1-3 (remember, understand, apply) and struggle to test higher order skills (analyze, evaluate, create). Those questions are harder to write, usually take much longer for students to answer, and it's hard to format them such that they can be graded in a standardized manner (e.g., how do you test the skills ability to "create", to generate new ideas, to plan, to design, using a multiple choice question?)
Placing a heavy emphasis on teaching to standardized tests means that teachers spend less time fostering higher order thinking skills.
- no_wizard 3y ago>how do you test the skills ability to "create", to generate new ideas, to plan, to design, using a multiple choice question? The real answer to this is "don't use multiple choice questions", but that would require significant investment in actually properly grading the outputs. One of course could say that then you're going to teach to criteria (IE, what are the evaluators looking for?) but that may or may not be a bad thing, depending on how its handled.
- scarmig 3y agoBut you need to master the lower order skills before you can master the higher order skills. If someone is unable to evaluate a multi-digit sum, they'll be unable to devise creative solutions that use multi-digit sums.
- gms7777 3y agoOf course, I'm not saying that the lower order skills are not important -- as you say, they're foundational. And I'm not even saying that it's a bad idea to test lower order skills. But they're not the only important thing, and "teaching to the test" tends to treat them like they are and prioritize them over critical thinking, synthesis, and creative skills.